La litigación civil por daños al medio ambiente. ¿son los derechos de la naturaleza una alternativa razonable?

Abstract

: On the 3rd of October 2022, Law 19/2022 on the recognition of the legal status of the Mar Menor lagoon was published in the Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE). The law attributes the lagoon legal status (Article 1 Law 19/2022) and certain rights: the right to exist, protection, conservation and restoration (Article 2 Law 19/2022). The attribution of legal status to elements of nature is not new on the international scene. This theory, which is completely new in European legal orders, is known as the rights of nature. This paper aims to analyse civil litigation for environmental damages and whether the so-called rights of nature are a viable alternative de lege ferenda. To this end, it examines (i) the participation of civil society in environmental protection through public enforcement mechanisms in the Spanish legal order; (ii) the cause of action for environmental damage claims; and (iii) whether rights of nature are a good option to enhance the protection of nature in civil justice.